There is increasing interest in employing one network to support video, voice and data traffic. Currently, the video, voice and data networks are distinct since each addresses differing latency and bandwidth requirements. The challenge lies in providing—within the same network—the ability to address potentially conflicting latency and throughput needs of diverse applications.
For example, voice needs to be transmitted with low delay (latency). Occasionally lost voice packets, while undesirable, are not fatal for voice transmissions. Conversely, data transmissions mandate delivery of all packets and while low latency is desirable, it is not essential. In essence transmission across the wireless network should (ideally) be driven by the needs of the application.
The techniques described in this application focus on time sensitive periodic transmissions such as VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and IP-Video. VOIP and IP-Video clients require regularly spaced time intervals to communicate with the wireless base station or wireless Access Point (AP) servicing them.
To explain the technique, VOIP phone calls will be used as an example in this application. However the technique described is applicable to all forms of periodic transmissions including but not restricted to IP-Video, scanning camera updates, or any other type of sensor transmissions sent and/or received on a periodic basis.
Note that some of the material contained herein is also described in C.I.P. Ser. No. 11/084,330 filed Mar. 17, 2005. In that context the previous application provided a voice container to transport voice packets in bulk up and down the backhaul path of a multiple-hop wireless mesh network. Here, the same VOIP concatenation engine is also being used to communicate with multiple voice devices associated with an AP radio. The previous patent application focused on the backhaul path, while this application focuses on the client software on voice devices to take advantage of voice concatenation while making the communication between voice devices and APs far more efficient that exists today on industry standard protocols. Prior art references that relate to voice packet synchronization in wireless LAN applications include published U.S. Patent Applications Nos. 2002/0150048 to Ha et al. and 2003/0048751 to Han et al.